Who I Am

I am scuffed up sneakers and red plaid blankets and ugly green houses

DoctorWho and tip-toeing on linoeum floors.

I am fairgrounds and Harry Potter and sticky tar Sundays,

Cowboy hats and too much glitter.

I am mint gum, thouh I always preferred watermelon.

I am blueberry lemonade and pistachio-coffee-Oreo-strawberry ice cream in the summer

And apple cider and brownies in the winter.

I am Aretha Franklin and ironed suit lapels,

Yucca plants and fire ants,

The smell of firewood and the sound of crickets.

I am Lilla and James

And bullet shells and names changed on Ellis Island.

I am Jay

And handmade tortellini and dozens of wind chimes

I am the books I read and the air I breathe

A collection of fears and dreams

Stories and memories and late night ramblings

I am an incorporeal entity,

A collection of neurons

An assembly of atoms

I am not who I was

But who am I?

I am who people need me to be

A series of contradictions

I am the undermined and overlooked

The understated and overachievers.

Glass bottles, glass ceilings, glassy eyes

Fighting to be heard in a lifetime of noise